389. 'Everyone finding him would kill him' means that all evil and falsity would destroy him. This follows from what is said above. The position in fact is this: When a person divests himself of charity, he in that case separates himself from the Lord. It is charity alone, or love towards the neighbour and compassion, which joins man to the Lord. Without charity the two are disjoined, and when they are disjoined man is left to himself, that is, to the proprium. In that case whatever he thinks is false, and whatever he wills is evil. These are the things that kill man, that is, lead to his having no life at all.

1430. 'When he went out of Haran' means an obscure state which the Lord was experiencing like that of man's childhood. This becomes clear from the meaning of Haran in the previous chapter, the place to which Terah came first together with Abram, and where Terah, Abram's father, died, 10:31-32, and also from references further on to Jacob's going to Haran where Laban lived, Genesis 27:43; 28:10; 29:4. Haran was a region where external worship prevailed, which in fact in the case of Terah, Abram, and Laban, was idolatrous worship. But the internal sense does not carry the meaning which is present in the external sense, only the meaning that a certain obscurity existed. As one passes from the external sense into the internal the idea of idolatry does not remain but is completely removed. It is similar to when the idea of holy love is gained from 'a mountain', see 795 - as one passes from the external sense into the internal sense the idea of a mountain first of all perishes, but the idea of height remains; and by height holiness is represented. The same applies to everything else in the external sense and its meaning in the internal sense.